Stories about my Buddist practice

Year 2016 is undoubtedly a magical year for me. In January, I came to the Beijing Longquan Monastery and took refuge here. Since then, I embarked on a journey in pursue of wisdom and liberation after then. Compared with most of the peer-practitioners, I started my Buddism practice quite late. So, I hope I could learn more to form right view and practice in the right way before becoming too old. I would also like to note down some precious experiences obtained in the process so that I may have the chance in future to review and rectify my flaws. Here I only mention a few.

Story 1: Do you like your dharma name?

Before becoming a Buddhist, many people, including me, had expect to obtain a beautiful dharma name. Some may even take refuges several times in order to get the dharma names they like on their Refuge Certificates. I prepared more than ten candidate dharma names for myself and they all sounded nice. On the day I received my refuge certificate, I found the dharma name upon it did not meet my expectation. It took me three days to realize that name just helps others to identify me. All names are equally good. Why should I have suffered for a name in the past three days?

If we like something, it also means that we would dislike something else. This is called divisiveness or dualism, which is a main source of afflictions. Accepting my dharma name could be the first course after taking refuge.

Story 2: When a volunteer picked up the rice on the floor...

One day in the monastery, during the mindful lunch time, a volunteer served us food. A small piece of rice dropped from his spoon to the floor. He quietly removed his glove, bended down, picked up the rice and put it into his mouth. Then he put on the glove and continued to serve food for us. He did it in 5 seconds without hesitation, as nothing had happened.

I asked myself, "If I were him, am I able to or am I willing to do so?" As I know, many people have forgotten to cherish food as they were told in their childhood, but one experience of mindful lunch in the monastery would remind them of the virtuous behavior.

Story 3: A statue of the Buddha outside toilet

One day, in Brussels, I invited several friends for dinner in a nice restaurant. Suddenly, I saw just outside toilet, a statue of Buddha was placed! Then in the next seconds, three notions popped up in my mind one after another.The first notion: How dare these Europeans put a Buddha statute here? (affliction)The second notion: Since the Dharmakaya is everywhere, I should pay my respect whenever and wherever I saw statues of Buddha. (respect)The third notion: If I really have a mind of faith, even the above two notions are unnecessary, and so far I am not in the position to blame those European friends who only use Buddha statues for decoration without too much knowledge of Buddhism. (mercy)

We appreciate you enjoy the solemn and beautiful images of Buddhas and Budhisattvas. However, I would still like to suggest our foreign friends erecting statues of Buddhas and Budhisattvas at the right place so as to show equal respect to Buddhism as to other religions.

Story 4: Would you please also read the name of Amitabha?

The other day, we followed Ven. XianRen to visit Huangpu Yuan nearby the Longquan Monastery in Fenghuang Mountain. I saw an old man collecting small walnuts on the ground. He told me he was going to make rosary beads with these nuts. Obviously he was not a Buddhist, but I could feel his belief in Buddha. I told him "Each time you bend down to pick the nuts, would you like to chant the name of Amitabha at the same time? This will help you to accumulate merits." He smiled at me happily and continued his picking while chanting Amitabha.

Sentient beings can be so lovely. I am one of them, and I can also be lovely.

Story 5: I can recitethe Great Compassion Mantranow.

I got support from Dharma friends, to be more exactly, it is the Bodhisattva who blesses me through the sentient beings around me. It is said that mindfully reading and recitingthe Great Compassion Mantracan generate incredible merits. In February, I made up my mind to recite the sutra before I am too old to recite. Once I started, I found it was too difficult to remember those sentences which appear no meanings. I kept reciting for a few weeks and could hardly remember the first 20 sentences. Until early April, one Dharma friend (we call her Shuang'er) got to know my situation and encouraged me to continue. She also told me how she managed to finish the Mantra reciting within ONE DAY.

This very last "within ONE DAY" really sounded like a thunder to me. How could a young girl do it while I could not? Or am I lack of the strong aspiration? ...

Within the following two days, I completed the reciting. Buddhas and Budhisattvas won't bless you unless you have strong aspiration toward enlightment.

Close up:Thanks, dear Dharma friends. Being one of you, I feel I am living on the land of great merit! The more we contribute, the more we benefit from each other. I'd like to go together with you as long as I can.